Deck fastening... again :-)

I've only done decks by handnailing with twist shank nails previously, my Bostitch coil gun is not suitable for decking (no twist nails available and it is only bounce-shoot) so I find myself in a quandry. I have ~420 lm of 88mm smooth decking to lay (undercover) and the timber yard's informed me that this mixed species eucalypt cannot be nail-gunned. There seems to be some evidence on here that you can nail gun this, but I don't want to hire a coil nailer and ss nils only to find it cannot be used. What do people think? Should I just hand nail?
Cheers
Michael

P.S. Some "professional" has nailed a section of the verandah down with t-nails, so also the variation in look from punched to dome head might look odd. I think I will have to handnail and punch it all. :(

mic-d,

I guess it would depend on the timber itself. if its seasoned then you may not be able use a nail gun. I am intending to nail down 300m of iron bark onto seasoned ironbark joists. I won't be able to nail with out predrilling first. I plan to use SS timber lock nails for this and quite a few 2mm bits for the pre drill stage. I would be asking the timber bloke what sort of eucalypt timber it is that your buying so as you can make the right decision in how you want to nail it down.:D

Hi Dave,
Looks like it will be spotted gum.
Cheers
Michael

I guess it depends upon your own opinion. I've read a lot about the pro's and con's of hammer v's coil nailer, ....
I use a (decent) coil nailer with ss screw shank nails on all but the ends of each decking board - regardless of species. On the ends I pre-drill and hand nail. The gun does cuase minor surface splintering along the grain on a few nails here and there (around 5-15mm from the head), but it's nothing major and doesn't affect the appeareance or durability of the deck. I've had a couple of boards split (jarah and iron-bark), and they have been removed and replaced - in my opinion they would generally not last the distance and would have needed replacement down the track leaving a patch job that would likely be noticable. Using a gun is far faster and is less demanding on the body than skating along on your knees with a hammer, drill, nail punch and a bucket full of nails.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mic-d

I have ~420 lm of 88mm smooth decking to lay (undercover) and the timber yard's informed me that this mixed species eucalypt cannot be nail-gunned.

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Did you ask why, be interested in their reasons.

I used recycled spotted gum for a deck a few years ago. It was so hard that I had to pre drill and hand nail each and every one. You could probably nail gun in the middle of the boards if they are not too seasoned, but predrilling would make it easier (but slower).

Trav

Its a bit of a moot point now, have sort of been backed into a corner to predrill and handnail with gal bullet heads. If I were able to nail gun it, the twist shank nails wouldn't match the punched look of the existing t-nailed section. Now I know 50mm t-nails are frowned upon, but I would like to know what is the diiference between skew nailed bullet heads and sew t-nails

Pope, the timber yard reckoned the timber is pretty dry and would split.Cheers
Michael

Michael,
AFAIK the T heads only come in bright steel or electroplate zinc, not hot dip gal. For that you need coil nails, framing nails (too large a gauge) or hand nails. That was last I looked at any rate, stopped doing decks a few years ago (my back doesn't like them anymore) so things may have changed somewhat now.

Mick

AFAIK the T heads only come in bright steel or electroplate zinc, not hot dip gal. For that you need coil nails, framing nails (too large a gauge) or hand nails. That was last I looked at any rate, stopped doing decks a few years ago (my back doesn't like them anymore) so things may have changed somewhat now.

That is correct, unfortunately the electroplated T nails come in a box marked galvanised. This tends to be a very loose term in australia and although I see people T nailing decks on a regular basis they are not suitable for exposed surfices in my opinion.
Cheers Stu

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Originally Posted by Stu

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That is correct, unfortunately the electroplated T nails come in a box marked galvanised. This tends to be a very loose term in australia and although I see people T nailing decks on a regular basis they are not suitable for exposed surfices in my opinion.
Cheers Stu

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Exactly what my t-nail boxes say -bloody misleading. When you think about it, its highly unlikely that clip-style nailers will ever be hot-dip gal. They'd either have to be done after collating and therefore the butted areas wouldn't be treated, or before collation, in which case the rough gal is probably going to stuff up the precision of collation.
I also bought some Whitco casement stays the other day that were boxed as gal but were only Cad plated.

As an ongoing experiment I've put bright nails, "gal" t'nails and hot dip gal nails in 3 glasses of salt water to look at the corrosion resistance of each. The bright nails satrted to rust in 3 hours.

Cheers
Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mic-d

As an ongoing experiment I've put bright nails, "gal" t'nails and hot dip gal nails in 3 glasses of salt water to look at the corrosion resistance of each. The bright nails satrted to rust in 3 hours.

Cheers
Michael

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this could be and interesting a experiment, I hope you will keep us informed of the progress

I'd also be interested how well they fair in salt water after they have been nailed as I'm sure some of the gal comes off as the nail is driven in.

Nail rust test. Its been 4 days now. The bright nails are still rusting, the t-nails have some rust spots starting on the tips and the heads and the hot dipped gal nails are unchanged.

Cheers
Michael